Bahala na ang Diyos – by Parekoy

Our generations were taught by our teachers and elders that one of our misguided beliefs is that we entrust our fate so much in faith of God. We disappoint and fail to listen to them though.

Our culture has these wrong comparisons on looking at life. One of them goes this way:

Kung ang ibon ay di pinababayaan ng Diyos tao pa kaya?

The oversimplification that God takes care of a simple bird creature poisons the mindset of our kababayans. They are misled that God takes care of everything and miraculously provides the poor bird his food on a silver platter! The reality is that the poor bird does not believe in any god but relies on his instinct and whatever intelligence it could harness from its tiny brain. Early in the morning it toils, flies, and searches for its food and sustenance.

But most of our unfortunate brothers and sisters, though literate, are not equip with skills that will help them progress beyond survival. They cling to God and the wrong belief that He provides even if they remain seated like a granite monument. Once they experienced hunger and realized that God does not provide, they are pounded by a wrecking ball of reality that indeed they better learn the ways of the bird and start to rely on themselves. For most of our kababayans, it is too late for them and it will take a generation and great odds to hurdle for their kids to climb the walls of poverty and reach a ledge of survival and able to eat three meals a day!

Philippine slum, Obando (source: Wikimedia)

Our culture saddles us and we need to revisit our values and throw away what don’t work, keep those that empower us, and learn to borrow from other cultures why they become economically and politically superior.

One thing that we need to put in the dustbin is our pwede na attitude. Why settle for less if by a little bit more effort and trying we could achieve the norm and if we give our best we achieve the best results.

Another is we are forgiving people to a fault. There is nothing wrong being magnanimous and forgive those who wronged us, but the wrongdoers should be punished first accordingly and do their time and pay for their misdeeds, then we can talk about forgiveness. Our plunderers and politicians take advantage of this abnormality in our psyche and konting paawa and pa-effect na luha, eh pusong mamon na ang karamihang Pilipino at madaling mauto. Marcoses are a living proof on this regard and Erap as well.

But one of the hindrances and biggest culprits is our lack of discipline in our culture! It starts with a simple house cleaning and taking care of our trash. Instead of placing our trash in a proper container and disposal, we throw it to our neighbor’s property or any place but our place. We are even drawn to piss on the wall that has written warnings, Bawal ang umihi dito. We don’t follow simple rules like pumila and be considerate to others who are ahead of us in line. Instead of using the pedestrian lane, we cross our streets and treat them as our oversized patintero playground. Instead of using the overpass walkways, we endanger ourselves by betting with our lives in crossing the busy highways for gaining five minutes of crossing and reaching our destinations. Most of us got our driver’s license by cheating and paid padulas to do away with the actual driving test. Most of us treat our traffic lights as suggestion and not a command to follow. Bending the rules and getting away of not following them is our norm! We justify our little infractions by pointing to our lawmakers who are themselves the breakers of the laws they create! We are really good critics and aware of our politicians’ shenanigans and their customary use of our public money as their private accounts, yet we are proud to get them as our Ninongs and Ninangs in our Kasal o binyag of our kids and wishing that by having these relationships will pave our ways to benefit us in some ways of getting better jobs or ease of doing business.

Filipino migrant workers (source: Wikimedia)

When we examine our infractions individually they are little but if we dig deeper the effect of the accumulation of infractions is quite damaging and destroying the very fabric of our society. We are unwittingly tearing ourselves, unnecessarily.

Our OFWs and immigrants can attest that we have the ability to change for the better. We have proven that we are capable of following simple rules and be a good citizen of other countries. We became a different person and awakened our other personality, who is much better than who we were back in our country. We are not only in our spectator capacity but as active participants and contributors to the progress of other nations through the use of our skills and talents. We know our potentials and our capabilities as OFWs and Migrants for we are living proof of our contributions and achievements.

Our challenge is how do we impart to our kababayans our better attitudes and mindsets that are beneficial to our country’s well-being and progress?

Within the global Filipino community (which includes all who are related to Filipinos including whites like Joe) we have our “tribes” as well. Many will listen and trust their own “tribe” more. Joe by being already identified with the supposed “Aquino-Roxas tribe” will not be listened to be some who don’t like them, while with Parekoy who is critical of Aquino at times they might listen.

When I look at Romanians, one reason why the country is changing so rapidly in the past years is the sheer number of people who have been abroad and have experienced that there is a different way to live than what they grew up with – impunity, deceit, neglect.

And possibly also the spirit embodied by what a Romanian returning home after years in Germany told me: “we’re tired of being seen as garbage by everybody else. Enough. Things have gotten moving with our new President, and people will see how things change.”

I’m a little self-conscious about harping on the subject of integrity but it seems to me to be the most important quality lacking in the Philippines, so I continue anyway. Integrity subsumes a host of other qualities such as honesty, trustworthiness, even a sense of fairness. Time and again I see examples of lack of integrity that directly destroy the reputation and degrade the future profitability of a company. And I see the other side, companies and individuals who act with integrity and are universally successful.
A very recent example involves a young friend of ours who buys products at wholesale in Manila and sells them at a good markup in Tagaytay. His business was successful and growing and then his supplier, without telling him, substituted an inferior, watered-down version of a dishwashing liquid that he had been distributing with considerable success to restaurants and such. His customers complained and demanded refunds. He lost his business, his supplier lost the profit from future orders, all for a single, immediate, short-term profit. Does this remind anyone of the fairy tale about killing the goose that laid golden eggs? Apparently this was done without remorse for the damage it caused his customer nor regret for the long-term consequences to his own business. And this is only the most recent example of this kind of thinking that I have experienced in my years here in the Philippines.
This lack of integrity pervades all aspects of Filipino society, commercial, governmental and even personal relationships. It is the reason behind the ponderous regulations and paperwork that make even simple transactions inefficient and cumbersome, It is the reason we pay a courier to deliver a check for us, rather than using the Philippine postal service. It is the reason I will not intentionally leave my car overnight with anyone except my trusted mechanic, who has consistently demonstrated his integrity. I have no proof but I suspect that it is a factor in limiting the success of the Philippines in international trade. (In part because I am reluctant to buy Chinese products of any kind. I can not comprehend how anyone could put harmful ingredients into baby formula but that goes beyond lack of integrity and constitutes murder.)
I write about this just because lack of integrity is such a pervasive element here that it seems invisible to many Filipinos who have never experienced anything else. And I feel like going to the top of a tower and shouting out a message: Integrity, honesty, fairness are not only personally gratifying but they are the key to success in business and in all aspects of life. Wake up, folks!